Photography question: low lighting / grainy pictures. Normal? (huge sample pic!!)
 

Im playing with my new Sigma F1.4 lens (55mm) (canon EOS) and i notice it produces 'grainy' pictures. Specially the area thats not focussed.

The picture below (may take a while to load) was taken under low light
circumstances with a 400 iso / 50 shuttertime.

Is this normal for low f lenses.. ?

http://www.mcredits.com/ll.jpg

Hmm.. let me try one with an even lower iso setting..

do you not have a light meter? that will pretty much tell you what setting to use

http://www.mcredits.com/ll2.jpg

Ok.. iso 100.. had to lower the shuttertime to 5 and i adjusted the brightness etc..

Seemsto be better but its not very practical to photograph with such a low
shuttertime...

A what???? Dont let my iso talk confuse you.. i was looking for where toplace the film in my digital camera just a week ago.

Can you give me a brand / type i should go out and buy?

Light meters are really only useful for lights... digital cameras in camera metering is fine for anything else (most cases)

This is more than likely two things, your ISO is too high (i think you can shoot ISO50 right?) and that maybe you are uping the brightness too much, which will cause grain in images.

Try shooting off a couple raw images on ISO50 and play with them, try using a different lens as well.

I have a sekonic L-358 Light Meter - there is a training manual that comes along with it and any reputation camera shop should have someone there to give you advice, I use henry's up here in toronto.

http://www.ritzcamera.com/graphics/r.../232060343.jpg

Is your lens opened up?

also try not deleting the meta data in the pic...that will give a good indication if you read it to see if there is something wrong too

50 Shutter???

Are you using strobes or condenstent, what the Kalvin of the lights your using .. what are they projecting?

Using abient light? no problem .. where are you what's the light source ... please give me as much information about the conditions of the set, with that I should be able to give you an accurate setting for your camera ..

Sorry the pic isn't opening for me

From the pictures, he's just taking them in ambient light, no lights.

Your grain is not coming from your lens, it's coming from your asa/iso setting. If your shooting in low-light situations, you have two options. Use a high asa/iso setting which may produce unwanted pixelation (grain) or use more light (which will enable you to use a lower asa/iso producing less pixelation (grain). If you are forced to shoot in a low-light situation and you have no additional light to add to the scene, you can always use a higher asa/iso (which will produce grain) and then run the pictures thru some software like Noise Ninja which will tone down the pixelation/grain problem that your seeing.

Good luck :thumbsup

YAh what he Said . LOL

Actually that's where I was getting too .. since I couldn't see the images, I couldn't really tell what was going on, from the posts, I figured you were using a low ISO and a high shutter speed .. should be the oppisite .. the ISO refers to the sensitivity of the Film, for example yuo would use ISO 100 to shoot on a sunny beach or a snowy mountain top .. 400 ISO for an overcast day or early evening ...etc ..

As for the shutter, it's the amount of time the camera allows light to reach the image plain .. Hense the faster your Shutter the lower the exposure is ..

Finnally the F-stop or Iris setting .. This refers to the Opening of the lens or Amount of light (rather then the Amount of time, ie: shutter speed) ...

Using simple math, or just playing with the 3 settings will teach you the fondamentals of photography.

:thumbsup thank you.

And for TheLegacy : let me pick up one of those devices to play with it.

all the best MrThumbs and I hope it works out too. I actually learned a great many things from Vid's post as he is the expert in this field

I seldom go much above 80iso when workin' with available light - instead I go with longer exposures (on tripod) with cable release.

Lately I've been finding it handy in the studio to wire the camera to a remote TV monitor when shooting in available light. Its easier to watch the monitor than the small lcd on the camera. Yeah, its a little cumbersome...but I find the pics are spot-on for exposure settings.

Canon digital camery are usually pretty noisy in low light...

Just to give an idea of results using 80iso (olympus e10) with longer exposures...shot these earlier today in the studio under both candlelight and the last one with plain flourescent. The candlelight exposures were approx. 1.5 secs.

All are right from the camera, no post-edit except to resize.


http://www.fetishopolis.com/kap-images/kamt13.jpg

http://www.fetishopolis.com/kap-images/kamt14.jpg

http://www.fetishopolis.com/kap-images/kamt15.jpg

http://www.fetishopolis.com/kap-images/kamt16.jpg

http://www.fetishopolis.com/kap-images/kamt17.jpg

quite amazing

http://www.mcredits.com/ll3.jpg

[QUOTE=SilentKnight]Just to give an idea of results using 80iso (olympus e10) with longer exposures...shot these earlier today in the studio under both candlelight and the last one with plain flourescent. The candlelight exposures were approx. 1.5 secs.


Yup... and even longer exposures give amazing results (well could
be more amazing but like i said.. just started playing!!):

http://www.mcredits.com/ed/7.jpg

http://www.mcredits.com/ed/3.jpg

I made this pic with a cheap 55mm lens f4 and 3 seconds exposure.

I decided to experiment with lower F lenses to compensate the exposure time
with light sensitivity of the lens. Movement is a bitch.

Lookinh good mrthumbs. Great shots! :thumbsup

your on your way .. keep experiementing . .pics are looking great !!!!

Hit me up anytime your in a snag I'd be happy to assit

Could also be that your cam is set to save the images as the most compressed JPG. Try shooting one in a higher resolution or in RAW.